2018.07.1018:00:00UTC+00Australia Consumer Confidence On Tap For Wednesday

Australia will on Wednesday see July results for the consumer confidence index from Westpac, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In June, the index added 0.3 percent on month to a score of 102.1.

Australia also will see May figures for home loans. In April, loans were down 1.4 percent on month, while the value of loans added 0.2 percent and investment lending sank 0.9 percent.

Japan will release May numbers for core machine orders and the tertiary industry index, plus June figures for producer prices.

Machine orders are expected to fall 5.0 percent on month and rise 10.2 percent on year after jumping 10.1 percent on month and 9.6 percent on year in April. The tertiary industry index is expected to slip 0.3 percent on month after rising 1.0 percent in April.

Producer prices are called higher by 0.2 percent on month and 2.8 percent on year following the 0.6 percent monthly increase and the 2.7 percent yearly gain.

The central bank in Malaysia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 3.25 percent.